Gil Elliot obituary

Gil Elliot’s major work was the Twentieth Century Book of the Dead, which was published in 1972 to great acclaim

My father, Gil Elliot, who has died aged 86, was a Scottish writer and intellectual admired for his thinking on philosophy, religion and death. His major work was the Twentieth Century Book of the Dead, published in 1972 to great acclaim.

A global study of violence, it detailed and illuminated the human lives lost to war and man-made privation. Three-quarters of the way through the century, the nation of the dead was already 100 million strong. Death in such great numbers is almost impossible to comprehend, so for every major conflict he wrote a moving fictional account of one individual death: the unknown soldier or civilian. WH Auden wrote in the New York Review of Books: “Everyone should read this book.” Other reviewers called it a “small masterpiece” and a “seminal work”.

Gil (Gilbert) was born in Kilmacolm, Renfrewshire, one of five children of Jean (nee Gollan) and Thomas Elliot. Gil and his siblings were brought up on the golf course where his father was a greenkeeper. Thomas was a man of great natural wit and wisdom and shared his deep love of literature with Gil.

His sister Sheena remembers her brother’s gentle nature, soft-spoken manner and beautiful smile. He was an accomplished card player and liked to play three-card brag in the card schools of Paisley. He was also an ardent supporter of Rangers FC and taught his sister Anne the names of the entire team at the age of six.

He began an English degree at Glasgow University but, following national service with the army, he left for London and became part of a literary crowd that met daily in the Cosmo restaurant on Finchley Road in the 1970s. He went as a mature student to Sussex University, but left to write the Twentieth Century Book of the Dead. Following its success, he wrote Lucifer, a biography of the devil, published in 1978.

Gil was deeply affected when his partner, Ruth, took her own life. He struggled to write again for a long time, and worked as a freelance market researcher. When in the early 90s he met and married the journalist Anita van Vliet, she encouraged him back into writing.

The Shock of Mortality, an analysis of how the great writers wrote about death, and a novel, The Madness of Lovers, were published in 2014; and a collection of short stories, Adventures in Love, in 2017.

Gil and Anita lived in Camden Town, north London, for many years. In 2008 he had a stroke, which left him paralysed on one side. He taught himself to type with one hand and continued to write and edit. He was a lifelong member of the Labour party and a frequent contributor to the Guardian letters page.

He was a charismatic man with a delicious sense of humour. He was never happier than when holding forth with family and friends over dinner.

Gil is survived by Anita, by his two sons, Sam and me, from his first marriage to Helen Morton, by a son, Zac, with a former partner, Kenteas Brine, his siblings Tony, Anne and Sheena, and eight grandchildren.